28 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
described by Meyer and Yarrell; others, however, 
are occasionally of a darker colour. Bill bluish 
horn; cere yellow; irides light yellow; head and 
neck, both above and below, nearly white, streaked 
with light brown; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, 
secondaries and tertials ight yellowish brown, each 
feather edged with yellowish white; primary quills 
dusky, more or less edged and tipped with white ; 
tail yellowish brown, base of the feathers white, and 
tips white; breast white, streaked with yellowish 
brown; belly, upper parts of the thighs and flanks 
brown, making a broad band of that colour round 
the under part of the bird; under tail-coverts nearly 
white; elongated feathers on the thighs dirty white, 
barred with yellowish brown; tarsus feathered to the 
junction of the toes; feathers dirty white and yel- 
lowish brown; toes yellow. 
The eggs of this species appear to be something 
like, and to vary much in the same way as, those 
of the Common Buzzard. 
Marso Harrier, Circus @ruginosus. All the 
Harriers are now becoming very scarce throughout 
the whole country: occasional notices of their occur- 
rence appear in the Zoologist,’ and other works of 
a similar nature, but they are generally very few and 
far between: the particular species now under con- 
sideration appears to be almost extinet in this 
county. The greater part of the few specimens 
I have ever seen of the Marsh Harrier that had 
